RUMFORD — Residents will return to the voting booth for the fourth time in four months Tuesday, Oct. 8, to decide eight remaining municipal budget articles.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the American Legion Hall.
The Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee approved the following recommendations:
* $625,000 for the Fire Department
* $716,000 for the Police Department
* $874,000 for Public Works
* $650,000 for Public Safety
* $60,000 for General Assistance
* $749,000 for General Government
* $358,000 for Capital Accounts
*$1,276,000 for Unclassified Accounts
Voters originally turned down all 12 money articles on June 11. They totaled $7.5 million. Selectmen then cut $1 million from the next budget, which was presented to voters on July 23. The Finance Committee reduced the proposed budget to $7.2 million.
At that referendum, eight of the 12 budget articles were rejected. Passed were funds for health and sanitation, the Rumford Public Library, public service and debt service.
In a third referendum vote Aug. 27, voters once again rejected all eight municipal budget articles.
“I’m hoping and praying that the legislative body will pass it,” Selectman Brad Adley said at the board meeting Sept. 26. “It’s been thinned down enough as it is.”
Town Manager Carlo Puiia said the current total of the budget going before the voters is $6,564,576, down from the $7,521,032 voters initially rejected June 11.
According to Puiia, the town’s charter allows revotes as many times as needed until a municipal budget is passed. Each referendum costs the town about $5,000, he said.
mdaigle@sunjournal.com
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